(Source: http://www.quickiwiki.com)

There is a small ravine on the road from Vladimir to Bogolyubov. You cannot be mistaken – it is the only one there. The Sungir Ravine was named in honor of the eponymous creek flowing into the Klyazma River. The oldest site of prehistoric man in Central Europe was found in this unremarkable place in 1955, during the extraction of clay for the local brick factory.

The excavations have been performed here by the Moscow’s famous archaeologist Otto Nikolaevich Bader for more than 20 years. During the excavations of the Sungir site they found burial places of a tall men aged 40-50 years (Sungir-1) and teenagers: a boy aged 12-14 years (Sungir-2) and a girl aged 9-10 years (Sungir-3).

The teens’ heads were positioned next to each other, their clothes were covered with thousands of beads made of mammoth’s bones, which allowed to reconstruct their outfits. Interestingly, they were similar to the traditional clothes of modern northern people. In addition, bracelets and other jewelry items of ivory were found in the graves. The graves also contained javelins and spears made of mammoth’s bones, including a spear 2.4 m long. The graves were covered with ochre.

“Sungir people” are assigned to Cro-Magnons - the early representatives of the modern man. Studies, including radiocarbon analysis, have been conducted in the laboratories of the Institute of Geological Sciences, the universities of Gronningen, Oxford, Arizona; their results indicate that the settlement of Sungir could emerge from 20 to 29 thousand years ago. Scientists believe that site existed there or was regularly visited by people for 2-3 thousand years. The exhibition “The Site of the Ancient Sungir People” is located in the building of the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve. The reconstruction of the site is exhibited in the Children’s Museum of the city. “Sungir” is a monument of federal importance under the patronage of UNESCO.